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False Alarm Fines

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False Alarms

Many people have installed alarm systems over the years and unfortunately many of them have stopped using them. This is a bad situation for home owners to get into. This makes their home fair game for the criminals. The police departments have become inundated with false alarms and cannot always respond and if they do respond to an alarm that they cannot verify you will in most cases get a false alarm fine. These fines can accumulate quickly and can make it very costly.

There are actions that you can take to eliminate false alarms.

Check your motion detectors and see if they are pet immune

Check to see if the placement of the detectors are correct

Many of the older alarm systems in use were installed before pet immune motion detectors were even available. If you have an older system it may be as simple as upgrading the motion detector. If you have pet immune detectors then you must have them facing the right direction. They are not always as pet immune as we would hope. For example, if the motion detector is close to the back of a couch or table and your cat jumps off the back of the couch this can result in a false alarm. In many cases you can reposition the detector and eliminate the false alarms.

The newest device to come on the market is a motion detector with a built-in camera. 2Gig Go Control panel offers this new device and it can cut down or eliminate false alarms. This is how it works:

The alarm system is armed

The image Sensors detects movement

An image clip is sent to the homeowner

The image is reviewed by the homeowner

The central station calls to confirm the alarm

The homeowner tells central station to dispatch or not based on the actual picture of what tripped the alarm.

Image Sensor – Motion Detector and Camera

Anyone that owns animals should definitely have a 2GIG GoControl panel to get rid of the false alarms. This device also helps to identify an intruder.

The device also has a look-in feature so you can get still shots of what is going on in your home at any time. This is not streaming video but just quick still shots so you can keep tabs on what is happening at home.

Many counties are moving towards a verified response requirement. This means that it must be visually verified that a break in is happening or they will not respond. It is already in place in Chico and San Jose among other places. The image sensor satisfies the visual verification and gets the police to roll faster because it is treated as a crime in progress instead of a potential false alarm.